Star Forge Titan

Linde's method of cultivating extraordinary people is to constantly assess and compete, screen out relatively suitable people through repeated tests, and then train them to become extraordinary people.

Therefore, the extraordinary people here are often divided into different levels at the same time, and they are naturally more arrogant towards ordinary people.

Of course, the children of nobles and wealthy business families who can provide large sums of money are not included.

They will receive the best training and teaching, and will naturally be at the top of their class, able to command other students to do this and that as a matter of course.

After all, Linde is, after all, just a feudal country that has just begun magical reforms. They have not yet developed to a new model that truly conforms to the current productivity, and equality between people is out of the question.

"Why are you looking for me?" Diana suddenly asked.

"Because I plan to participate in the Lutetia Youth Magic Car Competition to be held later. So, I need a teammate who is good enough." Alvin looked at the short-haired girl beside him with sincere eyes.

"That's not the real reason." Diana shook her head and continued:

"Any team would welcome an excellent alchemist like you to join them."

"But my goal is to be first. Can they guarantee first place?" Ivan said calmly.

“…” Diana did not answer the question immediately, but a smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.

"See, you also think they can't guarantee this." Alvin also smiled.

"I can guarantee that." Diana suddenly stopped smiling and looked up at the stranger who spoke with a Genoese accent.

"But I want 70% of the bonus." When she said this, the short-haired girl's breathing became a little rapid, but she never looked away.

She did not explain why she did this, but just pursed her lips and showed a stubborn expression.

"Okay." Alvin nodded without hesitation.

"But I just want the championship."

"No problem!" Diana responded at the same speed, and a strong light began to shine in her eyes.

Alvin noticed that it was not entirely a desire for money, but more of a yearning for victory, for the championship, and for first place.

The two did not continue talking for a while, but just looked at each other silently, as if confirming something.

Suddenly, there was a rapid knock on the door.

"Mammy! Mammy! Is Mammy Theresa here?" a young voice called out anxiously from outside.

"What's wrong?" The nanny who was coaxing the child to sleep leaned out from the second floor.

But I heard that voice say immediately:

"Someone's fallen ill!"

At this time, Alvin and Diana had already arrived on the first floor.

When they opened the door, they saw a dusty young man looking at the second floor anxiously.

"Dominic? Why is it you?" Diana said with some surprise:

"Diana?" The young man seemed to have not expected to meet her here, and couldn't help showing a surprised expression.

This young man named Dominic was also born in Marilyn's orphanage, but unlike Diana who participated in underground car racing, he became a gang member.

He joined the Orphan Gang, a new gang in the downtown area that was founded by another group of people who left the orphanage in the early years. It was a new gang that fought without regard for life and behaved very crazy. It was also the gang that Betty used to scare away other gangsters before.

"Who's sick?" Diana asked immediately without bothering to reminisce about the past, even though she was somewhat disgusted by these guys who had joined gangs.

"Frank, little Julian, Anaïs and many others who went to work in the factory." Dominic stamped his feet.

"Lead the way quickly." Sister Theresa, who finally appeared with a medicine box on her back, said immediately.

"Okay!" Dominic responded.

"Diana, you stay and look after the house." Mother Theresa turned to Diana and said, then walked out the door with Dominic.

"Betty!" Diana shouted immediately.

"I'm here. What happened?" A little head immediately popped up from the corner. It was Betty who had sneaked downstairs.

"You stay and look after the house!" Ignoring her question, Diana just repeated what Mother Theresa had just told her.

"Huh?!" Betty looked stunned.

"You..." Diana looked at Ivan again, and then she realized awkwardly that she had not asked the other party's name.

"Just call me Alvin." Without paying attention to this, Alvin immediately said:

"I'd better go with you. It's always good to have more people to help with things like this."

"...Sorry to bother you, Alvin." Diana didn't hesitate for long and quickly made a judgment.

After closing the door and making sure Betty had locked it properly from the inside, the two of them trotted to catch up with Sister Theresa and Dominic.

They walked through the winding alleys and soon came to an even more dilapidated neighborhood.

Before they even entered the door, they heard violent retching sounds coming from inside.

Chapter 29: Dwellers of the Abyss

Children in orphanages have to start thinking about their future livelihoods when they are around twelve years old.

That way, when they turned sixteen and had to leave, they wouldn't feel rushed. As for being lost, that was too much of a luxury for orphans.

Among them, there are only a few who can find jobs on their own like Betty and Diana. The former relies on keen insight and a little cleverness, while the latter became a magic taxi driver by chance, and then slowly got involved in underground racing.

More orphans tend to join downtown gangs after leaving the orphanage, or simply go to work in various factories that are becoming more and more common after the start of the Magic Revolution.

The former lives in danger, while the latter at least has an income, although it is probably only enough to meet the most basic needs of food and clothing.

Fortunately, like other workers, they at least have one hope to look forward to.

That is the ocean-going exploration fleet that the Genoese Confederation opened to recruit people from all countries.

As long as you save enough money, you will have the opportunity to join the fleet as a partner with your labor and the minimum amount of capital raised, and go overseas for colonial development.

According to the boasts I heard from sailors, a fleet once strayed and accidentally discovered an island so huge that the edge was invisible! There must be vast tracts of fertile and unowned land worth cultivating.

By then, according to the collective investment contract before sailing, which involved labor and a small amount of capital, even the lowest-ranking crew members in the fleet would be allocated a large piece of land. This way, they could at least support themselves and their families by farming.

However, even this hope seems very slim.

Not to mention that the probability of the fleet finding the big island is low, it is also very difficult to successfully save enough money.

Although factory owners claim that factory work pays much better than farm work and is therefore more tiring than farm work, workers all know that even the healthiest adults would be exceptionally lucky to remain relatively healthy for five years after entering the factory.

As for child laborers, most of them only have three years.

If you can't save enough money during this time...

Then, jumping directly into the Seine might be a more appropriate option. After all, only less than 5% of workers will be able to continue working after five years, and most people will lose their ability to work or even their lives due to various diseases or factory accidents.

A worker who is unable to work is actually not much different from someone who dies directly. At least the latter will not continue to burden his family.

Starting from the orphanage, Alvin, Diana and others passed through a night road without street lights. From time to time, they encountered a few people who looked at them with malicious eyes, but Dominic bulged his chest muscles and waved his fists to drive them away.

Although this strong young boy behaved very obediently in front of Sister Teresa and Diana, Razor Cap Dominic's name had already become a little famous, although notorious, in the downtown gangs.

Soon, Alvin saw six or seven poor children lying on the bed and retching.

The air inside the house was filled with a pungent smell. This dilapidated wooden house was leaking air on all sides, and the larger cracks could only be barely blocked with mud.

The beds the children slept on were made of wooden boards and bricks. They were almost as hard as the ground and not at all comfortable.

Most of these children lying on the wooden boards were only fifteen or sixteen years old, and the youngest were only about fourteen years old.

Their faces were pale, their lips were a horrible crimson purple, the whites of their eyes were yellow, and their limbs hanging by the bed twitched uncontrollably from time to time. They coughed constantly, accompanied by frequent attacks of dry heaves.

But they couldn't spit out anything except acid water.

"How could they..." Sister Theresa asked in astonishment:

"I don't know. When we came back from the factory today, everyone seemed to be feeling a little strange. Little Julian's condition was the most serious. It must be that black-hearted factory owner causing trouble again!" Dominic said indignantly.

"Don't worry about those vampires for now. Why don't you go find a doctor or a priest now that things have come to this!" Diana looked at the children who were suffering from severe pain in surprise, and hurriedly went forward to hug the youngest one, with anger flashing in her eyes.

"Diana...Sister, don't blame...Brother Donimi." The youngest Julian opened his eyes with difficulty and spoke intermittently.

"It's okay, little Julian, don't talk anymore." Diana looked at the child in her arms with a face that was pale and blue.

"Big sister, have you forgotten that the temple has long been moved to the upper city?" Dominic shook her head.

"With all those security patrols, someone like me can't get anywhere even during the day, let alone at night!"

"Besides, it's too late and the doctors in the city are unwilling to see patients!" When Dominic said this, his eyes turned red with anxiety.

"Brother Canon doesn't want to offend the sheriff, so he won't let me use a knife to force them to come out for treatment." The sturdy boy wearing a wide-brimmed hat gritted his teeth, revealing an expression as ferocious as a wolf.

"Shut up! Don't you dare say that again." Sister Teresa jumped up and slapped him on the back of the head, making Dominic scream in pain.

“Doctors are as compassionate as angels in heaven, but the downtown area at night…” When she said this, the old lady sighed helplessly.

"It's too dangerous here at night for respectable people." In fact, if it weren't for Dominic, a gangster with a bad reputation, leading the way, even she would not dare to leave the orphanage easily at night.

Sister Teresa put down her medicine box and began to diagnose the children. After raising so many children, she was very familiar with common minor illnesses.

If the children in the orphanage caught a cold or fever, the nanny could cure them quickly by making a few decoctions and soups using the herbs she had picked up.

Dominic also remembered this and hurried to find her.

Diana and Dominic stood anxiously by, holding their breath for fear of disturbing Sister Teresa's treatment. But this time, Sister Teresa worked for a long time but couldn't find any symptoms that matched the children's symptoms.

Their difficulty breathing looked a bit like a bad cold, but their constant retching seemed a bit like a stomach upset.

However, neither the medicines used to treat the former nor the latter had any effect.

"It looks a bit like poisoning." Alvin, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly said.

Chapter 30 Beneath the Surface

"Who are you?" Dominic asked subconsciously.

When he saw this man standing with Diana just now, he thought that the other party was the latter's friend, so he didn't think much about it.

"Just a kind-hearted person passing by." After saying that, Alvin didn't care about Dominic's suspicious look, and walked forward to flip up the children's lips and carefully check their gums.

Although he wasn't a medical student, as a modern person living in an era of highly developed internet, his knowledge of various information far surpasses that of the ancients. Many tragic cases that occurred during the industrial era are even recorded in history textbooks.

Furthermore, his extensive experience in the fully immersive game Palladia has given him insights far beyond his years.

So, Alvin immediately came up with several more likely guesses.

Gently prying open the children's lips, he saw, as expected, that their gums were the same horrific crimson-purple hue, almost black. Then, Ivan took a closer look at their fingernails, where he could also see black lines, both clear signs of acute heavy metal poisoning.

We cannot draw a direct conclusion based on this alone, but the children’s situation can no longer be delayed.

"Go get some milk, quickly!" Alvin turned and shouted to Dominic.

The boy, who was much stronger than his peers, was stunned for a moment, then turned around and rushed out the door like a big dog that had been kicked.

Regardless of where the kid got the milk at this late hour, the poisoned children were already seriously ill, even displaying unconsciousness. Some were calling out for their mothers in garbled voices, while many were drowsy and unable to utter a single word.

"Mammy, please give me the medicine box." Alvin asked Mammy Theresa for the medicine box containing herbs.

“…” Looking at the various herbs in the box, he did not act immediately.

"What's wrong? Is there anything missing?" Diana asked immediately.

"I need to recall something." The black-haired boy sat cross-legged in front of the medicine box and slowly closed his eyes.

Memories from the past began to flash back one by one.

As early as when he first came through, Alvin discovered that as long as he concentrated, he could recall many memories that were blurred due to the long time. Even those written materials that he only glanced at by chance could be recalled accurately for every word.

This is probably one of the most intuitive manifestations of improved intelligence attributes.

Because of magic, in the world of Palladia, the relationship between soul and body is extremely close.

Low-level professionals will enhance their soul potential while exercising their bodies, and after entering the third level, they will need to in turn improve their soul level to drive the ultimate sublimation of life.

Therefore, transcendents need to practice meditation to train their thinking abilities at the second level, indirectly increasing the strength of their souls. Spellcasters even begin practicing meditation at the first level.

For Alvin, this body with the Titan Spirit's genetic genes had long begun to affect his soul, so those blurred memories of the past had become as clear as they are now.

Moreover, before he traveled through time, when he was not yet called Alvin, the young student who considered himself quite intelligent had already taught himself a special memory method called 'Memory Palace'.

In his mind, there is a huge palace of nothingness that is like a library and is filled with all kinds of books. It contains a large number of concrete products of knowledge and memory.

At this moment, a vast amount of information, like a series of categorized books, quickly appeared in Aiwen's originally empty mind, and then many invisible big hands kept pulling them out and flipping through them.